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When more reports enlarge the impression of Michael Jordan and Jordan Sports with the headings of “win or lose” and “victory and defeat”, it is easy to mislead people into thinking that the Jordan Sports trademark has all been revoked. However, Jordan Sports Officer Wei issued a statement in a timely manner, saying that the defeat will not affect most of the company ’s existing trademark use, but whether it is a message area or likes to forward, it is negative. Most of the evaluation.

It is the listing plan for Jordan Sports that is even more melancholy. In 2012, when Jordan Sports was preparingOn the other side, Michael Jordan applied to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to revoke the 78 related registered trademarks of Jordan Sports. Over the next few years, the lawsuits were endless and the listing went on and on.

In April of one year ago, Jordan Sports ’listing application passed the preliminary review again. One year later, it is still unclear whether the arrival of a final judgment will disrupt Jordan Sports’ listing plan again.

Legal Branding Lesson 1: Trademark Defense War

For overseas brands, the squatting of local trademarks will largely lead to misleading consumers and market share.

In the final judgment of the “Jordan” trademark dispute, the Supreme Court adopted two investigation reports submitted by Michael Jordan. The report shows that 85% and 63.8% of the respondents respectively said that the mention of “Jordan” was Michael Jordan. Among the respondents who bought Jordan Sports brand products, 93.5% and 78.1% respectively believed that Michael Jordan was related to “Jordan Sports”.

The Nike Air Jordan series that is really related to Michael Jordan has never obtained the right to use the translation of “Jordan” in China. According to the Beijing Business Daily, since 2002, Nike has filed objections and disputes to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board against the trademarks of “qiaodan” and “乔丹” of Jordan Sports.

While Michael Jordan won the final trial, the sports brand New Balance (hereinafter referred to as “NB”) dedicated to “counterfeiting” also added another victory.

At the beginning of April, the trademark dispute between NB and Qiert Co., Ltd. for 6 years ended in NB. The latter two registered trademarks “N” are deemed to be similar to the NB letter logo “N” and should be deregistered. This is NB’s second victory this year.

In recent years, NB’s “counterfeiting” rights have never stopped. Whether it is the italic “N” and bold “N” letter logos similar to NB, or the registration of “NIUBANLUNSI”, “niubailunsi”, “New Balance”, etc. that are similar to or the same as the pronunciation of NB, all are snipers in NB Within range.

The success of one after the other is inseparable from NB ’s own perseverance in defending rights and the continuous improvement of China ’s trial standards. In the judgment of NB and Qierte Co., Ltd., the Supreme Court introduced approximate judgment standards. This has a very positive effect on solving the phenomenon of trademark registration and malicious registration.

The malicious registration of trademarks is not new at home and abroad. Because of legal differences and the lack of awareness of trademark brand protection, “Zhengzhu” often faces the threat of “copycat” brand hitchhiking for profit, thereby occupying market share.

In the face of this situation, on the one hand, overseas brandsMonitor in time so as not to miss the time limit, and protect rights by filing objections or appeals; on the other hand, the brand can seek transfer or authorization.

Unfortunately, no matter which one, it will inevitably cost a lot of time and money.

This also reminds Hai’s brands to be “unmoved but far away”, to establish awareness of trademark registration as early as possible, and to implement trademark strategy deployment in advance.

Lesson Celebrity Lesson 1: Name Defense Battle

It is reported that Jordan Sports not only registered trademarks such as “乔丹”, “QIAODAN”, but also registered the Chinese translation and pinyin of Michael Jordan’s two sons: “Jeffrey Jordan”, “Marcus Jordan”, “JIEFULIQIAODAN”, “MAKUSIQIAODAN”.

Registering names as trademarks has natural advantages. The popularity of professional celebrities is easier to translate into commercial trust, which also reduces the promotion expenses to a certain extent. Therefore, Jordan Sports was once infamous because of this practice.

One of the focal points of the “Jordan” dispute is also here, that is, Michael Jordan believes that Jordan Sports has violated his right to name.

In this regard, the Supreme Law determined that “before the application date of the disputed trademark in this case, until 2015, the retrial applicants have a high reputation in China, and its well-known scope is not limited to the basketball field, but has been Become a high-profile public figure “. Therefore, the registered trademark of the disputed trademark “Qiao Dan and Tu” was deemed invalid.

It is worth mentioning that the Supreme Law clearly stated in January this year that if the Chinese translation of a foreign natural person meets the conditions, it can be claimed to be protected as a specific name in accordance with the law, and the malicious application of a registered trademark is not supported by the court.

From Jeremy Lin and Yi Jianlian in the sports world, to Tu Youyou, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize, the name has been squashed. Celebrity nouns such as Zhong Nanshan, Li Lanjuan, Li Wenliang, and Vulcan Mountain, which are well-known to the public recently because of new pneumonia, were also applied for registration as trademarks.

In response, the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office stated that it has implemented control of more than a thousand trademark registration applications related to the epidemic situation, and those that are likely to cause major social adverse effects will be rejected according to law.

According to data from the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, the number of trademark registration applications in China reached 7.121 million in the first 11 months of 2019. China has accumulated a total of 24.78 million registered trademarks, with an average of 1 registered trademark for every 4.9 market entities.

Behind the huge numbers are the following reasons:

• Promotion by government departments: trademark registration fees are reduced, allowing individuals to register trademarks lowers the registration threshold
   

• Psychological stimulation of speculators from overnight riches
   

• Lag of existing review mechanism for judging and defining recent hot reviews < / span>
  

  Under the stimulus of money, the people who make a living by squatting were born.

  In addition to buying low and selling high to make the difference, the squatters have another way to make money: using registered trademarks to maliciously “touch porcelain” related enterprises or personnel to obtain compensation.

  In August last year, the host of the station B “Jing Han Qing” claimed that he had received a letter from the sales department of Zhiqiao Electronic Products, Jinghu District, Anhui Province. He changed his name in time, otherwise he would have to pay a trademark transfer fee of tens of thousands of yuan. In this regard, Station B stated that it would provide corresponding legal assistance to UP hosts with similar encounters.

  In the face of malicious trademark squatting, in addition to the improvement of the trademark registration review mechanism, it is also inseparable from the progress of the law and the promotion of trademark awareness among brands. Only in this way will there be more wins and fewer disputes.